FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT LUXURY TAX - PAGE 4

While Derrick Rose is telling people he plans to play on Monday, the Bulls are leaning toward being conservative with Luol Deng . Deng underwent an MRI on his sprained left wrist Sunday, results of which were not immediately available. He said late Saturday he didn't think the injury would sideline him for a lengthy period. However, with a normal week featuring no back-to-back games in this compressed schedule, not to mention a Nets lineup that starts three guards, Deng could sit for the first time this season.

Despite weekend bargaining, the sides in baseball's labor dispute were unable to make enough progress to prompt union leadership to postpone Monday's meeting of player representatives in Chicago. While Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Donald Fehr said the course of action won't be determined beforehand, it appears likely that players will set the date for a possible strike. Both sides seem to understand the high stakes involved. They have held bargaining meetings or joint work sessions for 12 of the last 14 days but adjourned without a breakthrough Sunday night.

The Sports Xchange Warriors deal Jenkins, Tyler in cost-saving moves The Golden State Warriors made two minor moves at the NBA trade deadline Thursday, allowing them to stay under the luxury-tax threshold. Guard Charles Jenkins and cash went to the Philadelphia 76ers, and forward/center Jeremy Tyler and cash were dealt to the Atlanta Hawks. In both deals, the Warriors received future draft considerations. Jenkins, 23, was lightly used off the Warriors' bench this season.

The NBA labor deal is about 95 percent complete, but some major barriers still exist, The New York Times reported Saturday . The NBA owners and players have agreed on contract lengths and luxury-tax rates, trade rules and cap exceptions and a number of other issues, making the deal about 95 percent complete, according to The Times. The report suggests most of the agreements favor the owners. There is still about 5 percent remaining to be settled, however, and that last 5 percent could be troublesome.

Is it the recession, the 10 percent luxury tax saddled onto cars that cost more than $30,000 or the onslaught of competition from Japan that has caused European car sales to plunge and at least two automakers to leave the U.S. market? The European automakers blame the recession and especially the luxury tax. Industry observers and analysts cite the competition from Japan and insist the Europeans are using the luxury tax as an excuse for failing to compete with the Japanese. Through the first eight months of the year, sales of the major European imports have fallen 24.3 percent, to 232,331 units from the 307,030 sold in the year-earlier period.

East: So far, signing Orel Hershiser seems to be a great decision by the New York Mets. Hershiser allowed just two hits in five shutout innings Tuesday, leading the Mets over the Florida Marlins 2-0. "I made some other mistakes than the hits," Hershiser said, "but they just didn't hit them." . . . Outfielder Cliff Floyd was put on the 15-day disabled list by the Florida Marlins because of a sprained left knee. Floyd is expected to return in two to four weeks. Central: After limiting Toronto to one run in six innings, Kris Benson, the No. 1 pick in the 1996 amateur draft, was told by Pittsburgh Pirates manager Gene Lamont that he had officially made the staff.

Picked-up pieces while counting the cars on the Florida Turnpike . . . Despicable baseball story of the day comes from Vero Beach, where Gary Sheffield says he's considering retirement. Shef has five years left on a six-year, $61 million contract and doesn't like the Dodgers' new dress codes and personal grooming guidelines. He told the Los Angeles Times: "I'm tired of every decision always being around me. I just want to wear my facial hair and earrings and just play the game." Go home, Gary, you nitwit.

The Metta World Peace era in Los Angeles is coming to an end. The Lakers will cut World Peace using their amnesty provision, which will provide the Lakers about $30 million in salary and luxury tax savings, according to the Orange County Register. The 33-year-old World Peace has spent the past four seasons with Los Angeles. This past season, which was cut short by a knee injury, World Peace averaged 12.4 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. World Peace had exercised his player option in late June, but his future with the team had been in doubt until Monday.

Rolls-Royce won`t join Peugeot and Sterling in folding up the tent and abandoning the U.S. market despite a 50 percent decline in sales this year and the strong possibility that only 500 Rolls and Bentley cars will be sold here in 1991. "That could never happen. It's unthinkable. We`d never leave the U.S. market. We`ve been here since 1906, the year Rolls-Royce was formed," said Reg Abyss, spokesman for the British luxury carmaker, who was in town to unveil a $249,800 offering called the Bentley Continental R coupe.

This time of year, brokers and buyers usually crowd the docks and boat yards along the waterfront of this small village on Long Island Sound. This year, though, the area seems abandoned, and there's a strange quiet, broken only by the faint clanks of rigging rattling in the wind. "I`ve been in the business 21 years, and I have never seen anything like this," said R. Grove Ely, president of Boatworks Yacht Sales, which has offices in Rowayton and in Essex, Conn. "The business has been extremely slow.